1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a high capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor having excellent reliability, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, electronic components using a ceramic material, such as a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, a thermistor, or the like, include a ceramic body formed of a ceramic material, internal electrodes formed in the ceramic body, and external electrodes mounted on a surface of the ceramic body so as to be connected to the internal electrodes.
Among ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a plurality of stacked dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor has been widely used as a component for a computer, a mobile communications device such as a personal digital assistance (PDA), a mobile phone, or the like, due to advantages such as a small size, high capacitance, ease of mounting, or the like.
Recently, as electronic products have been miniaturized and multi-functionalized, chip components have also tended to be miniaturized and highly functionalized. Therefore, a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a small size and high capacitance has been demanded.
In order to increase capacitance of multilayer ceramic capacitors, a method of thinning a dielectric layer, a method of highly stacking thinned dielectric layers, a method of improving coverage of an internal electrode, and the like have been considered. Further, a method of increasing an area of an overlapped portion between the internal electrodes forming capacitance has been considered.
Generally, a multilayer ceramic capacitor may be manufactured as follows. First, a ceramic green sheet is manufactured, and a conductive paste is printed on the ceramic green sheet, thereby forming an internal electrode. Several tens to several hundreds of ceramic green sheets including the internal electrode formed thereon are stacked, thereby forming a green ceramic multilayer body. Thereafter, the green ceramic multilayer body is compressed at a high temperature and high pressure to form a hard green ceramic multilayer body, followed by performing a cutting process, thereby manufacturing a green chip. Next, the green chip is plasticized and fired, and then an external electrode is formed, thereby completing a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
When the multilayer ceramic capacitor is formed by the above-mentioned manufacturing method, it is difficult to significantly reduce an area of a margin part of the dielectric layer on which the internal electrodes are not formed, and thus, there is a limitation in increasing the area of the overlapped portion between the internal electrodes. Further, a margin portion of a corner portion of the multilayer ceramic capacitor is formed to be thicker than a margin portion of the other region thereof, such that it is not easy to remove carbon at the time of the plasticizing and firing.